Recent research has underscored the prominent role played by a small fraction of fast-growing new firms in contributing to aggregate net employment growth. While it is typically assumed that those firms experience this superior performance thanks to their ability in undertaking technological innovation, few empirical studies have explicitly addressed this issue. This article examines the innovation-employment nexus for start-ups using the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS), a unique longitudinal dataset tracking a single cohort of US firms founded in 2004. Results based on fixed effects panel quantile regressions indicate an overall positive but heterogeneous effect of innovation activities on the conditional employment growth distribution. More in detail, the findings reveal that both research and development (R&D) and patents have a positive association with employment growth especially for those new firms experiencing high-growth.

In light of the prominent role played by young firms in shaping the creative destruction process and contributing to overall job creation, this thesis provides novel evidence on the dynamics of these segment of the productive system. In particular, the dissertation revolves around the following topics: i) the role played by innovation activities in fostering employment growth in young firms; ii) the impact of the economic recession of the growth rates of young vs. small firms; iii) the role played by public policies in supporting innovative entrants. In more detail, Chapter 1 examines the under-researched nexus between innovation activities and employment growth in newly born firms. Based on a representative dataset for a cohort of US firms born in 2004, the results highlight the relevance of R&D and patenting to foster growth and, especially, high-growth performance for newly-born firms. Chapter 2 provides additional evidence on the relationship between innovation and growth by using Chilean data and focus on how returns to innovation differ for young and mature firms. Results show that innovation benefits high-growth firms. However, these results materialize especially for mature firms and in the case of process innovation whereas innovative activities do not appear to be a prerequisite for high-growth performance in young businesses. These findings highlight how the returns to innovation might be context specific. Chapter 3 focuses on the impact of the double-dip recession on the growth performance of young vis-à-vis small firms. Using data for ten Eurozone countries, the findings show that small firms were not particularly affected - if anything they performed better - whereas young firms experienced a marked decrease in their growth rates. In the analysis we also find that the financial constraint channel appears to be one of the forces responsible for the above results. In Chapter 4 the main focus is the investigation of the role of public policy in providing support for the performance of innovative new firms. In particular, we investigate the impact of a recent policy implemented in Italy (i.e. the “Start-up Act”). The analysis indicates an overall positive effect of the program on a wide range of firm-level outcomes.

Direct public support for business R&D is a well-established remedy to market failures, yet empirical evidence on its effectiveness yields conflicting results. The paper investigates the impact of the first European public R&D grant program targeting small and medium enterprises (i.e. the SME Instrument) on a wide range of firm outcomes. We leverage the assignment mechanisms of the policy and employ a sharp regression discontinuity design to provide the broadest quasi-experimental evidence on R&D grants over both geographical and sectoral scopes. Results show that grants trigger sizable impacts. They increase investment, notably in intangibles, and innovation outcomes as measured by cite-weighted patents; they trigger faster growth in assets, employment and revenues; they lead to higher likelihood of receiving follow-on equity financing and lower failure chances. These effects tend to be larger for firms that are smaller and younger, or operating in sectors characterized by higher financial frictions. Furthermore, responses are stronger in countries and regions with lower economic development. The paper provides extensive evidence that the beneficial effects of R&D grants materialize through funding rather than certification effects.

The present working paper aims to describe the data sources and methods used to develop the Territorial Economic Data viewer (TEDv), as well as to explain the purpose and usefulness of the different dashboards available in the current version of the tool. Additionally, this paper includes practical examples with policy lessons that can be drawn from the available information, as well as a glossary of the indicators within the TEDv.

Policy-makers and scholars often assume that a higher incidence of high-growth firms (HGFs) is synonymous with vibrant regional economic dynamics, and that HGF shares are persistent over time as Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) have slowly-changing features. In this paper we test these hypotheses, which are deeply rooted in the EE literature. We draw upon Eurostat data for up to 20 countries over the period 2008-2020 and study HGF shares in NUTS-3 regions in Europe. Analysis of regional rankings yields the puzzling finding that the leading EEs in Europe, apparently, are in places such as southern Spain and southern Italy. These places would not normally be considered Europe's foremost entrepreneurial hotspots. Additional results do not provide strong support for the hypothesis that more developed regions feature higher HGF shares. We do find evidence consistent with HGF shares displaying persistency over time. However, we show that more developed regions do not have higher persistence in their HGF shares, and that the strength in persistence does not increase across the HGFs distribution, which does not support pathdependency as the main mechanism behind the observed persistence. Overall, we call for a more nuanced interpretation of both regional HGF shares and the EEs literature.